Farmers' Week in Agricultural College. 183 



CONDITION AS A FACTOR IN BEEF PRODUCTION. 



No one fact is more completely shown in the records of these ex- 

 periments covering five years with many different rations, and with cat- 

 tle of different ages, than that the condition of the animals at the begin- 

 ning of the feeding period has a very important influence upon the 

 final result. In every case where accurate comparisons could be made, 

 the fatter the animal at the beginning of the feeding period the more 

 grain was required to make a pound of gain. Not only was this true, 

 but in every single experiment as an animal improved in condition the 

 cost of the gains became greater. It seems reasonable to conclude from 

 the results of these investigations that thin animals fed on a ration which 

 will cause rapid gains will, other things being equal, be most profitable. 



No very great and important differences have been discovered as 

 between shelled corn and shelled corn supplemented with nitrogenous 

 supplements when fed to cattle grazing on good blue grass pasture. 

 This statement refers to the first three or four months of the feeding 

 experiment only. It seems to be a general rule that in long feeding 

 experiments supplemented rations maintain more uniform and con- 

 sistent gains than does the ration of shelled corn. 



SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS — FATTENING CATTLE ON BLUE GRASS PASTURE. 



1. Bate of gain. — The average of five years' work shows that, in 

 general, where nitrogenous supplements were fed to young cattle the 

 rate of gain was greater than where corn alone constituted the sole grain 

 ration. 



2. Palatahility. — One explanation of the larger gains is that in 

 all cases the supplemented rations seemed to be more palatable aad were 

 eaten in larger quantities. 



3. Feeding supplements during later stages of feeding period. — 

 The conclusion seems clear from these investigations that it will be 

 highly profitable to feed a limited amount of nitrogenous supplement 

 during the later stages of the feeding period to cattle that have been 

 receiving a grain ration of com alone. 



4. Grain for one pound gain. — There is little difference between 

 the various rations fed in this experiment to yearling cattle in respect 

 to the numher of pounds of grain required to make one pound of gain. 

 A ration exclusively of corn fed to yearling cattle on blue grass pasture 

 was nearly or quite as efficient as were the supplemented rations. 



5. Influence of condition. — "When the animals are in a fat or liali- 



